I woke up at 6:30 am. I was downtown by 8 am. It was a great day, nice and rainy. In the afternoon it stopped raining. I needed something to eat. My former professor, Casey Smith suggested Naan and Beyond Indian Cuisine, 1710 L Street NW. He claimed "cheap eats." I met him at Swing's Coffee Shop and we were gone. I ate as much as I could, and then complained about the strange chicken pieces I found in it. I guess this place doesn't know what pieces of chicken people like to eat. I would go back, but I'd stick to the vegan stuff. We had a good sports photo class tonight. Our guest speaker was Washington Post photographer John McDonald. It was a great presentation. I was soo ready to get home tonight I unbuckled my belt as I turned the corner to walk down my street. I guess that would be nearly equivalent to taking your shoes off when you get on the bus after a long day.
There are many ways to get around D.C. When it is raining and I am going more than a mile I prefer to take the bus. Today I took the bus to the Corcoran Campus H St Library and applied for a variety of photographic internships and summer jobs. Aside from that I did two favors that both involved photography. I am also researching the pros and cons of joining the Army National Guard. I just wish there were no such thing as the Nazi ... I mean Patriot Act. If I get an internship, chances are I'll need reliable transportation. If I join the military, they provide the transportation ... but to where?
I had a class early in the morning today. It was raining at 7am and it's still raining now. After class I went outside to Kareem's hot dog cart on New York and 17th St NW. Kareem was doing what everyone feels like doing on a rainy monday, taking a nap. Hot dog vendors are nice people ... but after a while you start to feel suspicious of them. Are they trying to kill me with that food?! Here is a poem I wrote about Kareem's cart;
good food right outside
can't eat it all the time though
it's bad for my insides
I got a bus headed downtown today. Arrived too late to meet a friend from class at the studio. I developed some film instead. All of the film that was in my flat file turned out black. The two sheets of 4x5 I developed for a classmate which turned out perfect. After that hung out with a couple friends who live by the school in Foggy Bottom. When I left there I bought two 99 cent cheeseburgers from McDonald's and ate the second one on the wrong bus. I got on the 32 instead of the 42. I got off a couple blocks later. Called another friend and stopped by his place to watch some television. Played a couple video games and started my walk home. On the way I followed some drunken punks around. They were yelling and trying to cause trouble. I thought I might get some good pictures ... no. Then Solomon and Susan saw me and gave me a ride home. Easter was filled with victories and defeats.
This is my friend Jen and her Parents Diane and Bob. They drove down here from Upstate New York to visit Jen for Easter. If you live in the District you become prepared to have more visitors than just your parents. I've had my share of visitors. You become a private tour guide. It's fun. One of the problems you might run into while guiding your own tour around D.C. is what to do at night if your guests don't partake in the tom foolery that surrounds drinking alcohol. In two years I have come up with four answers to this question -- movies, coffee, bookstore, or sleep. Tonight Jen was visiting Mount Pleasant with her parents so I met them at Haydee's Salvadorian Cuisine. Quirky atmosphere, the food is decent and always hardy. The only real drawbacks are it's a little too authentic and the slow service. It took four requests to finally get the check.
Here at the corner of K St. and Connecticut NW scooter people risk their lives several times a day. But I really like the idea that people are zooming around on these things that don't even have to have an inspection. You don't even need a license or insurance! It would be cool if more people had them. There are a few people who give scooter people everywhere a bad name ... and since I don't have a scooter I'm not one of them.
I finally finished the last chapter of Technopoly by Neil Postman today. It's a great book ... now I start skimming The Age Of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil. Great books about how technology changed civilization and the way modern people think. Postman is very witty in his writing. He jokes about the ironic issues of civilization and uses epiphanies as their punch lines. In Postman's book he says that painting is nearly three times as old as writing. That means a picture was worth a thousand words long before their were even words!
I thought I might take some pictures of people working at night. I saw a group of construction workers waiting for a lift up the side of a building around 20th and K Streets NW. I walked over to them and asked one guy if he was working the night shift. "From 9 to 5 in the morning," he replied. The I said, pointing at the elevator, "I bet that's kind of scary going up in that?" "Yeah, it is."
Less-Than Skeletal Elevator
Marvin and Jose are brick masons that work the night shift. They work the night shift because of the high traffic of K St. At night it's less likely that pedestrians will be hit by falling bricks.
This is All Souls Unitarian Church and tonight's full Moon. All Souls is one of three churches and a Masonic Temple that stands near the intersections of 16th St and Columbia Rd NW. Of all the grand structures at the corner this may be the oldest. Founded as the First Unitarian Church in 1821 it celebrated its first ceremony June 9, 1822 under the Rev. Robert Little. The bell use to be sounded for a variety of reasons including a local fire alarm. However, in 1859 the bell was sounded publicly for the last time mourning the hanging of abolitionist John Brown.
